If something is not able to be bought, like it's not sold anymore (not just that you don't have the money), is it illegal to download it for free? The two things I could think this applies to mainly are music and video games (like emulators), but i'm sure it could apply to a lot of stuff.

I'm not really sure what I think right now, so I just want to hear what you guys think.

I admit it. I have a SNES emulator, along with a game that was fan-translated because it was never released outside of Japan. I wouldn't have downloaded this, but it's nigh impossible to find a working SNES these days---well, it has been for me---and the game in question is rare even in Japan. There are probably very few working copies of it to be had . . . you can't imagine how bad I feel about this, especially since I do NOT condone piracy. (In order to play Pokemon Yellow again, I bought an old Game Boy Color along with a copy of the game last spring. The GBC doesn't work perfectly, but I can still play the game.) Hypocrisy really eats at the soul . . .

The slight hitch is that DRM affects legitimate customers more than pirates. Pirates will always get around whatever DRM you include with the game, In example:

I precently bought Loki in an RPG bundle pack. After installing, I tried to run it and - surprise! - SecuRom copy protection. If you don't know what SecuRom is, googling it and reading up on the debacle will probably change your opinion on DRM. This is an older version of SecuRom thankfully, and is just a hassle to get around whether than being malware installed on your computer without your knowledge. So apparently, it's detecting my DVD drive as a virtual drive. No matter what I do, I can't actually run the game, I try everything. So at what point was I supposed to give up and just torrent the game? I think it's absolutely sad that I need to pirate games that I own these days because attempts to stop piracy only hurt customers, whereas pirates can obviously get past any and all copy protection anyway.

Why are pirated copies of games preferable to legitimately bought copies? This is stupid.

The slight hitch is that DRM affects legitimate customers more than pirates. Pirates will always get around whatever DRM you include with the game, In example:

I precently bought Loki in an RPG bundle pack. After installing, I tried to run it and - surprise! - SecuRom copy protection. If you don't know what SecuRom is, googling it and reading up on the debacle will probably change your opinion on DRM. This is an older version of SecuRom thankfully, and is just a hassle to get around whether than being malware installed on your computer without your knowledge. So apparently, it's detecting my DVD drive as a virtual drive. No matter what I do, I can't actually run the game, I try everything. So at what point was I supposed to give up and just torrent the game? I think it's absolutely sad that I need to pirate games that I own these days because attempts to stop piracy only hurt customers, whereas pirates can obviously get past any and all copy protection anyway.

Why are pirated copies of games preferable to legitimately bought copies? This is stupid.

But i'm talking about, what if it's literally impossible to get a copy of it? If they don't sell it at all, and the creator doesn't ask for money or sell it whatever. Is it still illegal if nobody really bothers about it?